In her second start off a layoff, ZWP Stable and Non Stop Stable’s homebred 4-year-old filly Malibu Beauty dominated Delaware Park’s $50,000 Peach Blossom Stakes on the midweek July 6 card. The slight 1.60-1 favorite was clear at every call and drew off to win by five and a quarter lengths over four rivals.

 

Malibu Beauty was one of the most consistent 3-year-old state-bred fillies of 2021 when winning or placing in nine of her 12 outings for trainer Gary Capuano, who co-bred and co-owns her with ZWP partners Foard Wilgis and Dave Picarello. She recorded her first stakes win in Pimlico’s Miss Disco last August; earlier that summer she was second to Street Lute, missing by a half length, in the Stormy Blues at Pimlico. Following the Miss Disco, she registered back-to-back second-place finishes behind 2021 state-bred champions – Street Lute in Delaware Park’s Tax Free Shopping Distaff and older mare Hello Beautiful in the Maryland Million Distaff (while finishing a nose in front of Street Lute). Her busy sophomore campaign, which launched in January, concluded in Laurel Park’s Safely Kept Stakes, an open stakes for 3-year-old fillies, in late November in which she led early and faded late to finish off the board.

 

After six and a half months away, Malibu Beauty returned to the races at Delaware Park in June in a five and a half-furlong allowance and faced old foe Street Lute, who went on to win by nearly two lengths after swift fractions. Malibu Beauty never produced much of a punch and was fifth of seven. 

 

The Peach Blossom a month later, originally carded at seven and a half furlongs on the turf, was run at a mile on the main track. The only speed in the race, Malibu Beauty set leisurely fractions of :25.19, :49.12 and 1:13.19, was never threatened, and coasted home in 1:38.29. In notching her sixth win in 19 career starts, along with four seconds and three thirds, she pushed her earnings to $280,584.